Our first night of sleep was rough as we heard several animals throughout the night splashing in the river below, roaring lions, an animal screaming, and something munching on grass right by our tent. We later came to find out that we had some hippo visitors near our tent (which we later tried to capture on video on our last night there but failed). 

We met up with the group around the campfire for coffee and biscuits before it was time to head out. Another great thing with Emboo was we got heated water bottles to sit with under our blankets! Made those morning temps feel a little easier to bear. We saw so many hot air balloons heading up for sunrise! It was cool to see all the zebras in the plains with the balloons up in the air. We drove by the lionesses sleeping again and then Edward got the call from a team member in the camp that he spotted a leopard. So it was off to the races to try and see it before he headed off into the bushes or tree. We were surprised that the electric vehicle actually had some speed as Edward raced over to the area. Seeing the leopard was unbelievable and our Valentines Day started off on an amazing foot. Kenny called us spoiled because this was our first safari and we were already getting to see a leopard. It had taken him almost 20 years to finally see one in person. It was incredible to watch the leopard walk by our truck and we had a good view of him for a good 10-15 minutes before swarms of other safari trucks came in to see. Right before our bush breakfast, we also got to see a cheetah lying down in the shade. Just checking off all the big cats left and right! 

After our morning game drive, we came back for a quick nap and another delicious lunch. We learned goodbye and see you later in Swahili from Layler and talked about what we had seen that morning on the drive. We were ready for our afternoon game drive because there was a chance we could see the cheetah hunt (which would have been the icing on the cake for the day!) 

Our afternoon game drive started out with a large glass full of white wine with Kenny and Andy. They had basically split a whole bottle into two glasses for each couple so needless to say all of us were buzzing a little bit on the drive. We found the cheetah preparing to hunt and watching the antelopes and zebras in the distance up the hill. She made a couple of moves forward as if she wanted to hunt but eventually just laid down. It was amazing to watch all the herd animals disappear from the scene – as soon as one animal sensed the cheetah, within minutes a meadow full of animals turned empty. We headed off to try and find the elephants for the evening but another unfortunate fail. Like they say nature is unpredictable. As we were headed back for our sundowner, we saw a group of lions that people had said just tried to attack two buffalos but were unsuccessful. Maybe we would have better luck the next day with a hunt…

Back at camp we were surprised with some of the local Masai tribe coming to sing and dance for Valentine’s Day. They performed several different songs one of which was the engagement song where the men of the tribe try to jump as high as they can to show their strength. Whoever jumps the highest looks more appealing to win over a wife. They even dragged the guests up there to join them for the last song. Kenny was able to get a video of Grant and I up there singing with the group. Then it was time for the group dinner. Nine more guests had shown up that day so there were more people to meet: family from France living in Thailand, a Dutch couple visiting her sister in Nairobi, and a couple from Chicago. Dinner again was spectacular and they ended it with a red velvet Valentine’s Day cake. By the end though, I was more than ready to head off to bed with the hopes of getting more sleep that night.